>> time now for hits and misses of the week. mary, first to you. >> i'm giving a big hit to former indiana governor mitch daniels who is now running purdue university for imagine this, paul, the students. he's holding tuition costs in for the next two years and cutting spending, freezing raises for senior senators, deans on the professional staff. now, imagine if the obama administration felt the same responsibility to manage the federal government in the same way. >> a sequester for the university. all right. jason? >> this is a miss for new york governor andrew cuomo who wants to extend the temporary tax increase on high income

earners in the state after promising to let it expire. for the second time extending that temporary tax increase. do you think voters would learn after a while they're being played here? apparently not. out in california governor jerry brown sold californians on a temporary tax increase for high income earners in his state. i guess the blue state liberals never learn. >> paul: bret? >> briefly a hit for pope francis off to a fantastic start and i think this is obviously true for catholics and even as a non-catholic you see a pope getting out and mingling with people and showing love and humility to the people assemblying by the hundreds of thousands in rome to see him. next week, he's going to go and wash the feet of inmates in a prison for young offenders and this is the right way it seems to me to conduct the papacy and wish him continued success. >> paul: thank you all. and remember, if you have your own hit or miss, send it to us

at jer@foxnews.com and follow us on twitter: @jer on fnc. that's our show and thanks to all of you, i'm paul gigot and we hope to see you all here next week. >> on fox news watch. >> anything between me and my friend bb is a-- >> with the media in tow, president obama takes his show on the road. and convinces israelis and palestinians he really does care. is the press buying his pitch or asking tough questions like why now? after months of bluster and blame by liberal media for tougher gun laws, the democrats attempt for an

assault weapons ban his a miss. and a political campaigns lacking investigations and real objective reporting. will anything change? . taking a page out of the obama sequester scare play book, a top democratic leader is accused of trying to tie the budget cuts to the deaths of american marines, most in the media missed this as well. a new book out about our fox news chief. what kind of attention do you think that's getting? >> writer and contributor judy miller. cal thomas. jim pinkerton, american conservative magazine and he will enratner, talk radio service. i'm jon scott, fox news watch is on right now. >> i believe that israel is rooted not just in history and

tradition, but also in a simple and profound idea. the idea that people deserve to be free in a land of their own. the palestinian people's right to self-determination, their right to justice must be recognized. put yourself in their shoes and look at the world through their eyes. it is not fair that a palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of their own. . >> jon: president obama speaking to a primarily jewish audience in jerusalem on thursday, be a major trip to the middle east which had some critics in the media asking, why is he there? so, jim, let's get your answer on that. is it part of the charm offensive overseas? >> and netanyahu that should be a tougher sell. it should have happened in the

first term and various reasons they didn't. and now they're doing it now. not that they offer, but checking off the box. a moment between the president and netanyahu. and a strange transplant of the american to the west bank of israel. it's syria, egypt, iran and the media is having a tough time dealing with. >> gregg: and judy, you're back and are the media buying with what the president is trying to accomplish? >> israel, jon, it was a total love fest, i would have said, jim, exactly what you said before i went, but to see the outpouring of affection for this president and for what he represents, it was truly astonishing. >> not netanyahu. >> no, it was interesting both men have clearly figured out and several commentators noted

they need each other and it's going to be a very, very rough three years, and so you've got to get off on a better footing and work together because of iran, syria and all the others and egypt, i might add, humongous challenges facing them. >> jon: so both sides changed the media narrative? >> i think they have to because the trip was such a success. criti critics, from the jerusalem said they his at shalom. and the connection to the land and all the things he didn't do in the cairo speech. all the things he should have done on a first trip as commander-in-chief now he did and bb has to respond to that. >> jon: there were critics like the london daily telegraph who put together an editorial saying this is a trip he should have taken four years ago. >> that's right, and also what was fascinating to me is the different journalists and their take was almost a ro

rorschach test for themselves. andrea mitchell, this is to repair relations and jennifer ruben, this is a right turn and those folks. and real clear politics folks talking how he was, you know, doing this trip for the radical left. so, i mean, everybody had a very different take on why he was there. >> jon: have the media been critical enough of the president's important policy. >> we're seeing cracks in that. kudos to chuck todd nbc news who challenged the president during the the press conference with netanyahu and the failure, the president's, to achieve middle east peace. and prompting a snarky response from the president, as the israeli press would do. >> and on twitter just for fun, all of a sudden i saw a

series of tweets, who is the thug chuck todd. and i've seen-- all did he was ask a tough question and caused an eruption of reporters say how dare you be mean to our fearless president and brian williams had to take time off, chuck todd is fine and laugh it off. that shows how desperate they are to preserve the mast master-slave relationship with-- >> well-- >> did the media ask to accomplish-- they did ask, definitely did ask that question and had a different take on it. >> and after ignoring the peace process, why now? >> i still don't think the peace process, even though he there was talk about it is at the forefront of that agenda. the agenda is clearly syria and iran and perhaps in the reverse order, but there, in egypt. keep your eye on egypt.

as net several comment-- >> some of the media are totally clueless, here is the headline, it's beautiful, says everything. muslim brotherhood statement on women stirs liberals' fears. who knew that the muslim brotherhood didn't like women. >> jon: might crack down. >> ellen? >> it was interesting, one person even suggested the real reason he was doing this was so that israel would withdraw from ju-- >> and the favorite post, obama is from venus bb from mars. and no matter how much goodwill among the people. >> and two op-ed pieces welcoming the president said that, it suggested that hitler

was better than roosevelt and that americans were behind 9/11. that tells the mentality. >> jon: there you go. next on news watch, the plan to ban guns goes flat and the media goes silent. media goes silent. >> and sandy hook or the [ man ] i got this citi thankyou card and started

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>> coming weeks i'll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens from law enforcement, the mental health professionals to parents and educators, in an effort named at preventing more tragedies like this. >> jon: the president there reacting to the tragedy at sandy hook elementary school. one key item in his plan, the ban on assault weapons.

that ended this week after harry reid dropped the ban from any legislation. so, jim, you didn't get a lot of coverage on that in the media. >> well, on cnn on thursday, you got a certain amount of oh, hand wringing, it's so terrible. the end of everything in terms of this issue. and you're struck by the contrast that news thursday was covered and the flip for the president in last year. talks about mental health parents, educators and the pl panoply of things you might do. and so adam lanza the killer there, and sort of fallen out of the picture and the things have become gone control. the at media is so focused, john holmes, right about a the lot of things, converted to islam, and in terms of what was going on with him. the only thing they want, define as justice for newtown

is gun control up or down. >> jon: we'll get to you in a second, judy. ron fournier wrote the ban on assault weapons sponsored by dianne feinstein of california died tuesday with barely a whisper from the media or the white house. black bunting should have hung from every window in washington. it's like they don't want to acknowledge what happened. >> it's interesting, because there were some-- there was a headline, goodbye to assault weapons and michael moore on piers morgan talking about it, and what i found interesting is nobody talked about the political implications and why this happened. you know, watch how sausages are made. they talked goodbye orfeinstein, but nobody talked about the horse dealing and trading that went on. >> jon: mike lupica of the new york daily news, judy, wrote an op-ed piece, how it was

titled spineless poles spin on the graves of newtown victims by not pushing for assault weapons ban, but just days before that he had written an article about how video games play a role here. >> i think the simple fact remains that people like me who believe in restrictions have failed to make a strong enough case to the american people so that the deluge of outrage and calls for restrictions expected to come on capitol hill and harry reid a traditional supporter of gun's freedom, it never materialized and those are the hard facts and the new york times of course can be predictable in comparing harry reid and his cowardess to the courage of governor john hickenlooper of colorado. but the fact remains, until

the congress feels the heat nothing is going to change and they didn't on this issue. if anything they fell the opposite. >> we've heard this before. eugene robinson and also an msnbc commentator was all over harry reid in a column in "the washington post" basically calling him a weasel, which is very unusual coming from him. he's pretty much defender of all things democratic. and the president isn't going anywhere, politics and appealing to the base and too many democrats are up for reelection and they're from states with a strong gun ownership. >> and the president has taken sot heat including from the left. the thing that connects the middle east story and the previous story, president obama is now reelected. not going to help mitt romney if you would criticize the president, as it would pre-election. >> jon: and more from the sequester fear playbook.

>> senate leader harry reid sinks to a new low trying it tie the deaths of the u.s. marines to the sequester cuts. and a new study tells how the political press failed in political press failed in their what's droid-smart ? with google now, it automatically knows when you need to leave for the airport, how much traffic there is, and can have your boarding pass ready. the droid razr maxx hd by motorola. droid-smart. droid-powerful.

>> a new study by the pew research study for excellence in journalism examines a personal portrayal of candidates in 50 major news outlets over a ten week period. they found 72% of the coverage has been negative for barack obama and 71% has been negative for mitt romney. back in 2008, 57% of media coverage was negative for john mccain and 31% for barack obama. but the real story is where

those narratives come from, the study shows, jim, that political journalists are not really investigating, but sort of following the narrative laid out by the campaign. surprised? >> not really. there's a limit to what a reporter watching a candidate through six stops a day. do you want them to step back and say-- maybe you do, but their job and people watch and the news says this is what the guy says today. it's up to others to provide perspective and context. >> jon: but the feeling, judy, is that the campaigns then create their own stories and the media just laughs them off. >> and how many times on this show are we going to complain about the lack of investment in both foreign reporting and investigative reporting? it's the most expensive kind of reporting to do and fewer and fewer news outlets are doing it and it's a terrible shame, and this is what you get.

>> jon: so will anything change? >> no, and i like the word that the report used about reporters on the campaign trail, calling them mega phones. and because that is what happens. i always say if you want to cover the white house, don't go to the white house because you're not going to get anything, but what's fed to you. >> jon: let me repeat a story on your show, we did in the green room, the great cbs correspondent for many years now at harvard told he me a story when the great edward r muhro visited two nazi death camps, he went back to his room and thought two days before he went on the air. those days are gone. nobody contemplates or assimilates anything, they go right on the air. the prospects for excellence in journalism, i think that's a contradiction. >> and there are other outfits, you have franklin center for public integrity and other nonprofits that are

doing this and that's sort of a different function and from the days of muhro should be divided between analysis. >> jon: and moving ahead. seven marines were killed at hawthorne depot in nevada. and senator harry reid talked about the tragedy saying he will do whatever he can going forward to support the united states military families and the marines. and then he followed with this. >> it's so important we continue training our military, so important. but one of the things in sequester, we cut back in training and maintenance. >> jon: and comments went pretty much unnoticed by the mainstream media that day. cal, blaming the deaths of seven marines on sequester? >> all you have to do, jon, and say if a republican had done this, a rand paul, a marco rubio, the he media would have been all over them. instead a cnn reporter chasing

michele bachmann down through the bowels of the capitol, wanting to have evidence of some stupid comment that was made when they're not chasing down harry reid and asking him about that. it's unbelievable double-- >> should they have ellen? >> yes. you're hearing this from the liberal size. the sequester will probably cause real pain. i don't agree with ending white house tours and that stuff. but to blame the killing of the marines when this had been a trained exercise planned pr pre-sequester? come on. >> jon: was there anything unfair? >> it's unfair and utterly predictable. there is a double standard and we see it again and again. >> i agree with what ellen said and judy. michele bachmann's comments at cpac was based on a back, robert keith gray served in the eisenhower white house and

quoting from a book. and she had a source and maybe some disagree with the source, but the source is certainly an expert on white house life styles. >> but the point was cnn spent this time chasing her and didn't do anything with harry reid, that was the point i was trying to make. >> jon: all right, next on news watch, a new book about [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonderhat other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. [i had[ designer ]eeling enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪

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